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a terebinth and as an acorn when it falls from its cup, but according to Symmachus it is said: and again it will be for grazing like an oak and like an acorn, which having cast off stands alone, in this way the word foretells a complete desolation. And this was fulfilled in the times of Hadrian, during which the Jews, having endured a second siege, were reduced to such a state of misery, that by imperial laws and decrees they were not permitted even from a distance to look upon the desolation of their own metropolis. The word uses very fitting examples, saying concerning the people of the Jews: for they will be like a terebinth or like an oak or an acorn when it falls from its cup. For it no longer says that they will be a “vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth,” nor “like a paradise of God,” nor “like a beautiful olive tree,” nor “like a palm tree according to the righteous,” nor like any other of the cultivated and necessary plants, but as an acorn, not even intact, but fallen from its cup, and as a terebinth, or according to the other interpreters: as an oak. And holy scripture is accustomed to name the oak and the acorn and the forest and the fruitless and wilder of the uncultivated trees, whenever it wishes to signify the foreign nations, to whom it says the people of the Jews will also be similar, differing in no way from the foreign nations either in life or in custom, but also finding themselves in a worse condition, because the others occupy their own lands and bring forth their own fruits according to nature, while these have fallen from their own and do not even function like them, so that for this reason they are compared to an oak, a wild plant, and to an acorn, a fruit that nourishes irrational animals, and this one having fallen from its cup. Following these things, with the addition of asterisks, it speaks about the holy seed from them, concerning which it was also said in the preceding: “If the Lord of Sabaoth had not left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah.” The phrase: a holy seed is its stump is not found in our copies, for which reason it might also seem superfluous; however, since Theodotion rendered it thus, saying: a holy seed is its stump, and Aquila: a sanctified seed is its establishment, and Symmachus: a holy seed is its resistance. What resistance or establishment could he say there is of that fallen people of theirs other than the holy seed from them, which did not fall nor endure a fall like the rest? And these would be they who received the saving grace, “hearing with hearing” and seeing with their eyes, whom the savior, pronouncing blessed, said: “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” 1.43 The first parts of the prophecy were spoken in the time of Uzziah the king, whom Jotham succeeded, at the beginning of his “reign” the prophet saw the vision that was set forth, through which he represented the divinity of the only-begotten Son of God and, having prophesied the things that have been said up to this point, he stopped, as the time did not require many words on account of the pious condition of the king, whom it was likely the people also followed. And after the vision, when an interval of time had passed, “sixteen years”; for Jotham ruled for that many, Ahaz reigns, a most impious of men. if ever there was another, in whose time the present things are prophesied, containing a prophecy of the birth of the Son of God according to the flesh. And the word possesses a great consistency, prophesying after his divinity the things concerning his birth into humanity. And the subject of the prophetic word becomes the revolt of two kings against Ahaz, of whom the one, Rezin by name, led Syria, possessing Damascus as his royal city, and the other ruled over the multitude of the Jews in the city called Samaria. And this was Pekah son of Remaliah. And so, having agreed, these men march against Ahaz, who reigned in Jerusalem ... leading the tribes of the Jewish nation, but God delivers Ahaz over because of very many

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τερέβινθος καὶ ὡς βάλανος ὅταν ἐκπέσῃ ἐκ τῆς θήκης αὐτῆς, κατὰ δὲ τὸν Σύμμαχον εἴρηται· καὶ πάλιν ἔσται εἰς καταβόσκησιν ὡς δρῦς καὶ ὡς βάλανος, ἥτις ἀποβαλοῦσα ἵσταται μόνη, οὕτω πως ἐρημίαν παντελῆ προαγορεύοντος τοῦ λόγου. ἐπληροῦτο δὲ καὶ αὕτη κατὰ τοὺς τοῦ Ἀδριανοῦ χρόνους, καθ' οὓς δευτέραν ὑπομείναντες Ἰουδαῖοι πολιορκίαν εἰς τοῦτο κακῶν περιέστησαν, ὡς νόμοις καὶ διατάγμασιν αὐτοκρατορικοῖς μηδ' ἐξ ἀπόπτου τὴν ἐρημίαν τῆς αὐτῶν μητροπόλεως θεωρεῖν ἐπιτρέπεσθαι. σφόδρα δὲ ὁ λόγος προσφυέσι κέχρηται παραδείγμασιν φήσας περὶ τοῦ Ἰουδαίων λαοῦ· ἔσονται γὰρ ὡς τερέβινθος ἢ ὡς δρῦς ἢ βάλανος ὅταν ἐκπέσῃ ἐκ τῆς θήκης αὐτῆς. οὐκέτι γὰρ «ἀμπελὼν κυρίου σαβαὼθ» οὐδ' «ὡς παράδεισος θεοῦ» οὐδ' «ὡς ἐλαία ὡραία» οὐδ' «ὡς φοῖνιξ κατὰ τὸν δίκαιον» οὐδ' ὡς ἄλλο τι τῶν ἡμέρων καὶ ἀναγκαίων φυτῶν ἔσεσθαι αὐτούς φησιν, ἀλλ' ὡς βάλανον οὐδ' αὐτὴν συνεστῶσαν, ἀλλ' ἐκπεπτωκυῖαν τῆς θήκης αὐτῆς, καὶ ὡς τερέβινθον, ἢ κατὰ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἑρμηνευτάς· ὡς δρῦν. δρῦν δὲ καὶ βάλανον καὶ δρυμὸν καὶ τῶν ἀνημέρων ξύλων τὰ ἄκαρπα καὶ ἀγριώτατα εἴωθεν ὀνομάζειν ἡ θεία γραφή, ἐπειδὰν ἐθέλῃ τὰ ἀλλόφυλα σημαίνειν ἔθνη, οἷς ὅμοιον ἔσεσθαί φησι καὶ τὸν Ἰουδαίων λαὸν οὐδὲν τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἐθνῶν οὔτε τῷ βίῳ οὔτε τῷ τρόπῳ διενηνοχότα, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν χείρονι τυγχάνοντα καταστάσει, τῷ τοὺς μὲν τὰς οἰκείας ἐπέχειν χώρας καὶ τοὺς κατὰ φύσιν τὴν αὐτῶν προφέρειν καρπούς, τούτους δὲ τῆς οἰκείας ἐκπεπτωκέναι καὶ μὴδ' ὁμοίως ἐκείνοις ἐνεργεῖν, ὡς διὰ τοῦτο παραβάλλεσθαι δρυὶ ἀγρίῳ φυτῷ καὶ βαλάνῳ καρπῷ ζῴων ἀλόγων θρεπτικῷ καὶ τούτῳ ἐκπεπτωκότι τῆς θήκης. τούτοις ἑξῆς μετὰ ἀστερίσκων προσθήκης ἐπιλέγει περὶ τοῦ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἁγίου σπέρματος, περὶ οὗ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω ἐλέγετο· «εἰ μὴ κύριος σαβαὼθ ἐγκατέλιπεν ἡμῖν σπέρμα, ὡς Σόδομα ἂν ἐγενήθημεν καὶ ὡς Γόμορρα ἂν ὡμοιώθημεν». τό· σπέρμα ἅγιον τὸ στήλωμα αὐτῆς οὐ κεῖται μὲν παρὰ τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἀντιγράφοις, διὸ καὶ περιττὸν εἶναι δόξειεν ἄν· πλὴν ἐπεὶ ὁ μὲν Θεοδοτίων ἐξέδωκεν οὕτως εἰπών· σπέρμα ἅγιον τὸ στήλωμα αὐτῆς, ὁ δὲ Ἀκύλας· σπέρμα ἡγιασμένον στήλωσις αὐτῆς, ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος· σπέρμα ἅγιον ἡ ἀντίστασις αὐτῆς. τίνα ἀντίστασιν ἢ στήλωσιν φήσειεν εἶναι τοῦ ἐκπεσόντος ἐκείνων λαοῦ ἢ τὸ ἐξ αὐτῶν σπέρμα ἅγιον τὸ μὴ ἐκπεσὸν μηδὲ τὴν ὁμοίαν τοῖς λοιποῖς ὑπομεῖναν πτῶσιν; εἶεν δ' ἂν οὗτοι οἱ τὴν χάριν τὴν σωτήριον ὑποδεδεγμένοι «ἀκοῇ ἀκούσαντες» καὶ ὀφθαλμοῖς βλέψαντες, οὓς μακαρίζων ὁ σωτὴρ ἔλεγεν· «ὑμῶν δὲ μακάριοι οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ὅτι βλέπουσιν, καὶ τὰ ὦτα ὑμῶν ὅτι ἀκούουσιν». 1.43 Τὰ πρῶτα τῆς προφητείας ἐπὶ Ὀζίου τοῦ βασιλέως λέλεκτο, ὃν διαδεξαμένου Ἰωαθὰμ κατ' ἀρχὰς «τῆς βασιλείας» αὐτοῦ τὴν προταθεῖσαν ὀπτασίαν ὁ προφήτης ἑώρα, δι' ἧς τὴν θεότητα τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ παρέστησεν καὶ θεσπίσας τὰ λελεγμένα μέχρι τούτων ἔστη, οὐ πολλῶν λόγων δεηθέντος τοῦ καιροῦ διὰ τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως εὐσεβῆ κατάστασιν, ᾧ καὶ τὸν λαὸν ἐξακολουθεῖν εἰκὸς ἦν. μετὰ δὲ τὴν ὀπτασίαν χρόνου μεταξὺ διαγενομένου «ἐτῶν δέκα ἕξ»· τοσούτοις γὰρ ἦρξεν ὁ Ἰωαθάμ, βασιλεύει Ἄχαζ δυσσεβέστατος ἀνδρῶν. εἴ τις καὶ ἄλλος, καθ' ὃν τὰ προκείμενα θεσπίζεται περιέχοντα προφητείαν τῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ κατὰ σάρκα γεννήσεως. καὶ πολλῆς γε ἔχεται ἀκολουθίας ὁ λόγος μετὰ τὴν θεότητα αὐτοῦ θεσπίζων τὰ περὶ τῆς εἰς ἄνθρωπον αὐτοῦ γενέσεως. γίγνεται δὲ ὑπόθεσις τοῦ τῆς προφητείας λόγου δύο βασιλέων ἐπανάστασις κατὰ τοῦ Ἄχαζ, ὧν ὁ μὲν τῆς Συρίας ἡγεῖτο Ῥαασσὼν ὄνομα, βασιλικὴν πόλιν τὴν ∆αμασκὸν κεκτημένος, ὁ δ' ἐκράτει τοῦ πλήθους τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἐν τῇ καλουμένῃ Σαμαρείᾳ πόλει. ἦν δὲ οὗτος Φάκεε Ῥομελίου υἱός. καὶ δὴ συμφωνήσαντες οὗτοι ἐπιστρατεύουσιν τῷ Ἄχαζ, ὃς ἐβασίλευσεν τῆς Ἰερουσαλὴμ ... φυλῶν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους καθηγούμενος, ἀλλὰ τὸν μὲν Ἄχαζπαραδίδωσι ὁ θεὸς διὰ πλείστας ὅσας